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In this week's address, the President discusses actions to expand opportunity for more Americans, with or without the help of Republicans in Congress, including his Administration's efforts to cut red tape for major transportation infrastructure projects. And in the coming days, the President will meet with business leaders to highlight the importance of bringing jobs back to America and will also discuss the economic benefits of making it easier for tourists to visit and spend money at attractions in the U.S., which in turn helps local businesses and grows the economy for everyone.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all...

That's how the original Pledge of Allegiance goes. But the U.S. Senate, under the leadership of the Republican party, has undertaken to amend the age-old pledge. They're adding "except for minorities, the poor, and women."

It seems the GOP has determined there's a new meaning to phrases or words like "one Nation," "indivisible" and "liberty and Justice for ALL". It used to be that "All" means everyone. "Liberty and Justice" means freedom and fairness. Finally, "one nation" means united, as in the United States. Evidently, gone are the days...

Sadly yesterday the Senate Republicans, voted to trample their pledge. They voted down, as a unit, the Paycheck Fairness Act. Its purpose was to fix a wrong in our nation. It was to close the gap between wages of men and women doing the same job. And this bill would not cost anything. Here's what the proposed law would do, according to THE HILL:

The legislation punishes employers for retaliating against workers who share wage information, and puts the justification burden on employers as to why someone is paid less and allows workers to sue for punitive damages of wage discrimination.

So let's hear it for the patriotic Senate hypocrites from the GOP who swear by their patriotism yet feel it's important to trample on the very tenets of our Pledge of Allegiance.

To hear the Republican attack machine in overdrive, the passage of the Affordable Care Act was the first step in turning America into a country of part-time employees. It was going to force companies, especially small businesses, into cutting full-time workers' hours back just to avoid having to pay medical benefits and coverage premiums.

Now these prognosticators with their B.S degrees in fortune telling - and BTW, in this case B.S degree stands for Bull Sh*t -- have ignored taking into account many contributing reasons why employers won't be cutting back hours of employees to any great degree. Sure, a small percentage might, but that's not likely. The cost of finding and training an employee you can trust is far greater than the insurance premiums. What employer wants 10 part-time employees coming and going when 5 full timers will be more reliable?

The number of part-time jobs is actually shrinking, and full-time jobs are being created instead.

Specifically, the number of part-time workers in the U.S. fell in February to about 27.3 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. That number is down by about 300,000 since March 2010, when the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, became law.

Keep in mind, this change in employment numbers have come since the ACA has gone into full effect. And the news gets even better:

Meanwhile, the ranks of full-time workers have grown by more than 2 million within the past year to 117.8 million in February. The number of part-time workers fell by about 230,000 over that period.

It seems that at every turn, the Republican lie-generating machines and their public mouthpieces like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and their Tea Party cohorts, are being proven wrong. The ACA isn't perfect, but it's sure better than having done nothing. Now it's time to improve it, and the Republican party as a whole is starting to accept Obamacare and move toward fixes, rather than repeal. That's a great step and it could benefit us all.

Last night I had the most horrible of dreams -- a nightmare. Well, it was a nightmare in the sense that it caused me to wake up in a panicked state with a veneer of sweat across my forehead.

It went something like this. My son came home with a document -- the results of his psychological testing that was mandated in his application for a full time work position that he really wanted badly. He was a little concerned, so as a loving dad, I asked him what's up? He handed me a paper, the test results. Stamped across it was the word, "APPROVED."

Hell, I couldn't see anything the matter with that. I had more problems with his potential employer administering a psych test to see if he was qualified for this job -- the assistant director of IT for a middle-sized company. It wasn't anything that would have so great an impact that it required this kind of examination.

But it was done. And he was approved. So, the dream was going along just fine until my son asked me to look at the questions -- more of a profile assessment. My son was found to have all of the traits listed below, which were attributed toPsychology Today:

American exceptionalism and the need to protect it by strict immigration policies;

Anti-abortion under all circumstances (”Life begins at conception”);

Pro-capital punishment;

Pro-gun rights;

“Law and order” attitudes favoring harsh penalties for criminal behavior; Supporters of the “war on drugs;”

Anti-affirmative action;

Anti-reductions in nuclear weapons;

Anti-entitlements; anti-gay;

Anti-science (e.g., denial of evolution and climate change);

Belief in the promulgation of “Christian values” in schools, courts, and public ceremonies;

Reverence for people in uniform; given to patriotic display;

A fondness for military solutions to international problems;

Biblical certainty in matters of morality;

A conviction that those who disagree politically should be the objects of coercion; A view of oneself as beset by evil forces conspiring to take what one has;

The equation of compromise with “weakness.”

Oh my God. My son, whom I love, was a conservative. A friggin' Republican right-wing conservative! I panicked. What had I done wrong? I had raised him with love. I had never laid a hand on him and seldom even raised my voice with him. I had traveled with him to many countries to see and experience the world. We'd participated in many charity events. He was a good team player in baseball and soccer. He learned American Sign Language as his foreign language requirement so he could help those who might not be able to hear. He went to university and got his Bachelor of Science degree. He has a long-term girl friend. How could this happen to me -- or more importantly to him?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

And then I woke up. My son heard me yelling and rushed in, joining my wife with great concern. I hugged them both when I realized this was a dream. A horrible dream. My son never took such a test. And he assured me that he was still very much a left-leaning Democrat.

Now that should have been the end of it right there. But as with most good spooky stories, it's not.

In an email from Lucian to me which I read last night before retiring, was this study. And these qualities listed above are actually the traits Psychology Today compiled after vast studies and assessments, which best sum up today's right-wing conservative.

Oh, and the horror of it all? How can we survive with thinking like that running rampant among us?

I'd go back to sleep if I wasn't so worried about that dream becoming a reality.

Lesson here... don't go to sleep and let the right wing run free. Let's sleep but do it in shifts. It's the only protection we've got against mass insanity. That and our vote. Keep these Republican wackadoos from reaching office, local, state and national. Don't let the fact that the upcoming elections are "only" mid-terms. They are more important now than ever before. Get your asses out of your chairs and vote.